A League of Mullets movie review

Yo, Dr. Monkerstein discovered that his local digital cable provider is now offering free movies on the Video On Demand channel. So he made us watch The Spanish Prisoner again and here is our review:

This tight little gem of a movie is one of our all time favorites.

It's about a guy, played by Campbell Scott, who invents a money making thing that is called "The Process." He works for a big company that is headed up by Ben Gazzara and this company stands to make a lot of money off "The Process." They're concerned that Campbell Scott will leak it or lose it or somehow let it out get nabbed by their competitors. They try to go to great lengths to keep the process from getting loose and to keep Scott at arm's length when he wants to be financially rewarded for inventing "The Process."

Scott gets pissed at the company for not telling him just how much of a bonus they will pay him and he tells his troubles to a friendly man, played by Steve Martin, who he met on an island sojourn with some company brass. Martin's character it turns out is a con man and he is running an elaborate con on Scott in order to steal "The Process" so that he can sell it off.

As the plot unfolds we see all sorts of chicanery by all sorts of folks in the movie. Along the way we are led down blind alleys, metaphorically speaking, and through many twists and turns. In due time the movie answers these burning questions: Is the company going to screw over Scott? Will the hot seemingly sweet new office chick, played by Rebecca Pidgeon, steal Scott's heart or his invention? Are the FBI agents trustworthy? And what's up with that damn old dude with the broom?

Every one of the actors turned in a great performance in this movie. None of their characters uttered a false line or made an gesture that was not germane to the story.

The film was written and directed by David Mamet and on both counts he did a fine job. Of course, since he wrote the film, all the dialogue is in that now famous (or infamous if you hate his stuff) staccato Mamet style. For those of you who do not know what we are talking about here is a little snip of Mamet-esque style dialogue:

Man 1: You got that thing?

Man 2: The thing...

Man 1: Yeah, the..

Man 2: Thing?

Man 1: The...thing

Man 2: Oh...yeah...the th...

Man 1: thing.

Man 2: Yeah I got it.

We dig his style of writing but we can also see how people constantly repeating bits of dialogue and people speaking in circles to one another would get on film viewers nerves.

All in all we really really love this movie. We are suckers for movies about con men and we love most every movie Mamet has written and or directed.

We also really really liked it that Rebecca Pidgeon's, she is Mrs. David Mamet by the way, hair cut was nearly a mullet in this movie. It made us dig her even more.

We recommend you watch this movie whenever it comes on TV, that you rent it and watch it again, and that you buy it on DVD. It rocks.

So say us! So say we all!!!!